Johann Strauss, the Younger | Austrian composer | Britannica.com Johann Strauss, the Younger Johann Strauss, the Younger, (born Oct. 25, 1825, Vienna , Austria —died June 3, 1899, Vienna), “the Waltz King,” a composer famous for his Viennese waltzes and operettas. Johann Strauss the Younger. Harris & Ewing Collection/Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. (Digital File Number: LC-DIG-hec-23696) Strauss was the eldest son of the composer Johann Strauss the Elder. Because his father wished him to follow a nonmusical profession, he started his career as a bank clerk. He studied the violin without his father’s knowledge, however, and in 1844 conducted his own dance band at a Viennese restaurant. In 1849, when the elder Strauss died, Johann combined his orchestra with his father’s and went on a tour that included Russia (1865–66) and England (1869), winning great popularity.

In 1870 he relinquished leadership of his orchestra to his brothers, Josef and Eduard, in order to spend his time writing music . In 1872 he conducted concerts in New York City and Boston. Strauss’s most famous single composition is An der schönen blauen Donau (1867; The Blue Danube ), the main theme of which became one of the best-known tunes in 19th-century music. His many other melodious and successful waltzes include Morgenblätter (1864; Morning Papers), Künstlerleben (1867; Artist’s Life), Geschichten aus dem Wienerwald (1868; Tales from the Vienna Woods), Wein, Weib und Gesang (1869; Wine, Women and Song), Wiener Blut (1871; Vienna Blood), and Kaiserwaltzer (1888). Of his nearly 500 dance pieces, more than 150 were waltzes. Among his stage works, Die Fledermaus (1874; The Bat) became the classical example of Viennese operetta .

Equally successful was Der Zigeunerbaron (1885; The Gypsy Baron). Among his numerous other operettas are Der Karneval in Rom (1873; The Roman Carnival) and Eine Nacht in Venedig (1883; A Night in Venice). Learn More in these related articles: · December 10, 2016 · Johannes Brahms (German: [joˈhanəs ˈbʁaːms]; 7 May 1833 – 3 April 1897) was a German composer and pianist. Born in Hamburg into a Lutheran family, Brahms spent much of his professional life in Vienna, Austria. His reputation and status as a composer is such that he is sometimes grouped with Johann Sebastian Bach and Ludwig van Beethoven as one of the "Three Bs" of music, a comment originally made by the nineteenth-century conductor Hans von Bülow. Brahms Waltz No.15 Painting...s by Alex Lashkevich Johannes Brahms - Waltz, Opus 39 Nr. 15 in A Flat Major Thank you for watching and for comments! 1.

Johann Strauss II and Johannes Brahms 2. Strauss wife Adele with Brahms 3. Johannes Brahms studio apartment in Vienna. J. Brahms: 16 Enchanting Waltzes Op. 39, for Piano Johann Strauss ll Composer (1825–1899) Johannis-Käferln, Walzer (Glow-worms, Waltz) Op. 82 After some hesitation, following the death of Johann Strauss I in September 1849, the members of his orchestra elected his eldest son as their new conductor – a move which, in large part, helped to quell the resentment still felt by the press and certain quarters of Vienna towards the 24-year-old younger Johann and his pro-Revolutionary sympathies of 1848. Along with the orchestra, Joha...nn Son also took over the majority of his late father's conducting commitments, and in the spring and summer of 1850 he strove with grim determination to be accepted by the public as 'Vorgeiger aller Wiener' (Principal Violinist/Conductor of all the Viennese).

Aside from his musical gifts, the younger Johann also inherited his father's love of spectacle, and for 28 July 1850 at the Casino Zögernitz in the Viennese suburb of Ober-Döbling he organised a 'Grand Viennese Public Festival' resplendent "with magnificent ball, imposing illuminations and fireworks". It was on this occasion that the public was first introduced to Strauss's newly-composed waltz in Ländler-style, entitled Johannis-Käferln, written especially for this festival. · July 17, 2016 · Komzak II, Karel 1850-1905) Karel (Karl) Komzák was undoubtedly one of the most outstanding among a host of highly-gifted composers whose dances and marches made Vienna the light music capital of Europe in the closing decades of the nineteenth century. Actually there were three composers of this name - father, son and grandson. . After taking his early musical training with his father, he studied violin, musical theory and conducting at the Prague Conservatory between 1861 a...nd 1867.

In March 1869 he joined his father’s 11th Regiment band at Linz, playing violin and baritone. He also gained useful experience conducting the Linz theatre orchestra during his two-and-a-half years with the regiment. An important contribution of Komzák to the development of Austrian military music was his use of stringed instruments on whose contribution to the music he laid great emphasis. His band contained no less than fourteen first violins and could therefore be compared favourably with the usual concert orchestra of the period. The frequent and widespread tours undertaken by Komzák with his regimental orchestra were everywhere received with popular acclaim. · July 11, 2016 · COLISEUM WALTZES o.op Enhanced by a lifelike portrait of Vienna's bewhiskered Waltz King as he appeared at the time of his visit to the United States of America in 1872, the first piano edition of Johann Strauss's Coliseum Waltzes was issued by the Philadelphia publishing house of Lee & Walker and registered with the Office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington in 1872. No performing material for orchestra is known to have been published.

(Lee & Walker were the successor...s to George Willig & Co. of Baltimore, the publishers of Strauss' Enchantment Waltzes.) The waltz took its title from the focal point of the 1872 World's Peace Jubilee and International Musical Festival, the gigantic Coliseum building erected in the Back Bay district of Boston, Massachusetts, an area once part of Boston Harbour which had been reclaimed by landfill. To a design by the architect William G. Preston, work on the pilings for the Coliseum began on 4 March 1872, but on 26 April a severe whirlwind destroyed the partially constructed building. The edifice which arose in its place departed from the original plans for a curved-roof structure with an open span of 350 feet, and instead was closer to the design of the earlier Coliseum, built for the 1869 National Peace Jubilee in Boston's St James's Park (on the site of today's Copley Plaza Hotel), though more ornamental and Italianate in external appearance.

Notwithstanding the havoc wrought by the windstorm, the mammoth timber-framed structure was eventually completed in record time, ready for the opening day of festivities on 17 June 1872. The Boston Coliseum itself is no more; but the memory of it and the events of summer 1872 live on in the Coliseum Waltzes. Johann Strauss ll Composer (1825–1899) GREETING TO AMERICA. WALTZ o.op More than a week before Vienna's Waltz King arrived in Boston to commence his engagement at the World's Peace Jubilee and International Musical Festival in summer 1872, the Boston Post (7.06.1872) reported: "Strauss will compose a grand pot pourri of excerpts from the best of his own works, which he will style 'Sounds of Boston'. He is also composing a new waltz to be performed at the Jubilee under the na...me of 'Fair Columbia'". Perhaps the most through-composed of Strauss's original waltzes for the New World, Greeting to America is a most attractive composition.

Consisting of just three waltz sections, of which themes 2A, 3A and 3B are particularly infectious, the work breathes that spark of originality which distinguishes the waltzes Johann composed during his best period. The piano score of Greeting to America was unearthed at the Library of Congress in Washington during autumn 1983 by Dann Chamberlin, an American member of The Johann Strauss Society of Great Britain, who brought it to the attention of the American conductor, composer and arranger Jerome D. Cohen, who orchestrated the work from the piano edition. In this form the waltz was given its first performance by the Boston Strauss Orchestra, conducted by Myron Romanul, at a gala benefit concert for the Boston Ballet on 10 October 1985 in the ballroom of the Copley Plaza Hotel in Boston. Johann Strauss ll Composer (1825–1899) SOUNDS FROM BOSTON (GESCHICHTEN AUF DEM BOSTON).

WALTZES o.op According to a note in the Boston Daily Evening Transcript on 7 June 1872, "Johann Strauss has concluded to compose a dashing potpourri, made up of excerpts from the best of his former works, and to which he will give the appropriate name of 'Sounds of Boston'". The American newspaper printed this information just eight days before Vienna's Waltz King arrived in Boston, Massac...husetts, to conduct at the World's Peace Jubilee and International Musical Festival, a mammoth musical event extending from 17 June until its 'official' close on 4 July 1872. Johann Strauss II - the Waltz King in a nutshell. Johann STRAUSS II 25 October 1825 - 3 June 1899 (age 73) 'The Waltz King The most important member of the Strauss dynasty. Best known for his Viennese waltzes such as the Blue Danube. He also wrote operettas of which Die Fledermaus is an outstanding example.

Born: Johann Strauss II, 25 October 1825, Vienna, Austria Father: Johann Strauss I, also a composer, 'Father of the Waltz' Mother: Maria Anna Streim Siblings: Josef, Eduard, Anna, Therese and Ferdinand (died aged 10 months) 1st wife: Jetty Treffz (died 1862) 2nd wife: Angelika Dittrich (divorced) 3rd wife: Adele Deutsch Died: 3 June 1899, Vienna Cause of death: pneumonia Grave: Zentralfriedhof, Vienna. between Schubert and Brahms (see findagrave ) also known as Johann Strauss Jr, the Younger or the Son For an overview of the Strauss Dynasty go to our page The Strauss Family Works Over 500 Waltzes, polkas, quadrilles, marches, mazurkas, and gallops including: - the Blue Danube - Tales from the Vienna Woods - Artist's Life Favorite Composers in Art - Johann Strauss II A fascinating collection of images - art, portraits, caricatures, cartoons, album covers and postage stamps.

Career - Age 6: composed his first waltz. Education: His father wanted him to be a banker and aggressively discouraged him from a career in music. His mother secretly managed to get him music lessons. - Age 19: formed his own small orchestra, in competition to his father, and played in restaurants. - Age 24: His father died so he merged the two orchestras. - Age 28: Suffered a nervous breakdown due to overwork and stress. Doctors ordered him to rest for a couple of months and the family persuaded his brother Josef to take over the orchestra temporarily. - Age 30: Invited to play in St.Petersburg, Russia. He did this every year for the next 10 years - Age 37: married Jetta, a singer . - Age 38: Offenbach, the French composer of very popular and successful light operas, visited Vienna and met Strauss who was encouraged to have a go at this kind of music as well. It was however his wife Jetta who pushed him more in this direction. - Age 42: gave some successful concerts at Covent Garden, London.

- Age 45: resigned as court conductor to make more time for composing light opera. - Age 47 (1872): US tour - Boston and New York. - Age 53: Jetta died. He married 28 year old Angelika 6 weeks later. - Age 57: Angelika left him for another man. He then began a relationship with Adele who he had known for some time. She was a very positive influence on his composing and encouraged him to compose serious opera. As long as Angelika was alive the Catholic Church would not permit them to marry. So after trying for three years he left the Roman Catholic Church to become a Lutheran Protestant and changed his nationality from Austrian to German. - He continued composing dances and operettas well into old age. - Age 73: diagnosed with pleural pneumonia and died in Vienna. The Blue Danube - Waltz Die Fledermaus (The Bat) Overture Karajan and the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra Voices of Spring (Waltz) Kathleen Battle, Karajan and Vienna Phil.

The Great Waltz (1938)Trailer Bugs Bunny - A Corny Concerto (1943) Tales from the Vienna Woods and The Blue Danube The Johann Strauss Orchestras The Viennese music of the Strausses has proved to be of lasting popularity. The original Johann Strauss Orchestra was disbanded by Eduard Strauss I in 1901 but since then there have been various reincarnations. The best known current ones are: The Vienna Johann Strauss Orchestra. Formed in 1965 in Vienna, its first conductor was Eduard Strauss II who took it on a 6 week tour of the USA in 1966. It still has a very active tour schedule worldwide. website: André Rieu and his Johann Strauss Orchestra Founded by the Dutch violinist André Rieu in 1987 it is known for performing popular classics in a showy, spectacular style. André Rieu himself has taken over the title of 'Waltz King' and is a talented showman. website: New Year's Concert This world famous annual concert by the Vienna Philharmonic was first performed in 1939.

It takes place on the morning of January 1 and has an estimated audience of 50 million in 73 countries. Tickets are in such high demand that they are allocated by lottery for which you need to register a year in advance. Links, sources and where to go for more information: Answers.com a selection of reference sites including Wikipedia Johann Strauss II for Piano - Guides Johann Strauss II (25 October 1825, St. Ulrich - 3 June 1899, Vienna) Also known as Johann Strauss Junior, the Younger, the Son or the Waltz King, was an Austrian composer famous for his Viennese waltzes and operettas. One of his most popular, widely played and arranged pieces is The Blue Danube Waltz, known to the most casual listener today from many radio, film and television uses of it. His father, Johann Strauss I who was a composer, also famous for his waltzes, hoped that his son would become a banker and so, didn't encourage him to become a musician. Nevertheless, Strauss Junior secretly studied the violin as a child with the first violinist of his father's orchestra, Franz Amon.

He composed his first waltz at the age of six. Unlike his father, his mother secretly encouraged his musical education behind his father's back. After his father abandoned his family for a mistress, Emilie Trampusch, Strauss Junior was able to concentrate fully on a career as a composer. He began studying counterpoint and harmony with the theorist Professor Joachim Hoffmann, who owned a private school. His talent was soon recognized by composer Joseph Drechsler, who taught him exercises in harmony and his other violin teacher, Anton Kollmann, who was the ballet répétiteur of the Vienna Court Opera. During this period he composed his only sacred work, Tu qui regis totum orbem (1844). The same year he made his debut at Dommayer's where he performed with his dance band some of his first works, such as the waltzes "Sinngedichte", Op. 1 and "Gunstwerber", Op. 4 and the polka "Herzenslust", Op. 3. Following his father's death in 1849, Johann merged his own orchestra with his father's and took up his father's contracts.

He managed to surpass his father's fame, and became one of the most popular waltz composers of the era, extensively touring Austria-Hungary, Poland, and Germany with his orchestra. For the next several years his career moved along smoothly, but in 1853 he became seriously ill and turned over conducting duties to his younger brother, Josef, for six months. In 1855, Strauss accepted commissions from the management of the Tsarskoye-Selo Railway Company of Saint Petersburg to play in Russia for the Vauxhall Pavilion at Pavlovsk in 1856. He would return to perform in Russia every year until 1865. In 1863 he received the position of Music Director of the Royal Court Balls for which he applied several times, but was declined for his frequent brushes with the local authorities. Strauss’s most famous single composition is An der schönen blauen Donau (1867; The Blue Danube), the main theme of which became one of the best-known tunes in 19th-century music.

His many other melodious and successful waltzes include Morgenblätter (1864; Morning Papers), Künstlerleben (1867; Artist’s Life), Geschichten aus dem Wienerwald (1868; Tales from the Vienna Woods), Wein, Weib und Gesang (1869; Wine, Women and Song), Wiener Blut (1871; Vienna Blood), and Kaiserwaltzer (1888). Later, in the 1870s, Strauss and his orchestra toured the United States, where he took part in the Boston Festival at the invitation of bandmaster Patrick Gilmore and was the lead conductor in a "Monster Concert" of over 1000 performers (see World's Peace Jubilee and International Musical Festival), performing his "Blue Danube" waltz, amongst other pieces, to great acclaim. In his last years, Strauss remained quite productive and active. He was working on a ballet, Cinderella, when he developed a respiratory ailment which grew into pneumonia. He died on June 3, 1899.

Among his admirers, the prominent composer Richard Wagner once admitted that he liked the waltz "Wein, Weib und Gesang" (Wine, Woman, and Song), Richard Strauss (unrelated to the Strauss family) said in reference to Johann Strauss, "How could I forget the laughing genius of Vienna?". Johannes Brahms was a personal friend of Strauss; the latter dedicated his waltz "Seid umschlungen, Millionen!" ("Be Embraced, You Millions!"), Op. 443, to him. A story is told in biographies of both men that Strauss's wife Adele approached Brahms with a customary request that he autograph her fan. It was usual for the composer to inscribe a few measures of his best-known music, and then sign his name. Brahms, however, inscribed a few measures from the "Blue Danube", and then wrote beneath it: "Unfortunately, NOT by Johannes Brahms." Among his nearly 500 dance pieces, more than 150 were waltzes.

His works that are performed today may once have existed in a slightly different form, as his brother, Eduard destroyed much of the original Strauss orchestral archives in a furnace factory in Vienna's Mariahilf district in 1907. The measure was intended to prevent the Strauss family's works from being claimed by another composer. This may also have been fueled by Strauss's rivalry with another of Vienna's popular waltz and march composers, Karl Michael Ziehrer. Here you can find a list of Johann Strauss Jr.'s surviving compositions. Music History 102 Music History 102: The Late Romantics By the middle of the nineteenth-century, the cult of the composer as genius, cultural icon, or artistic prophet had become a generally accepted one in European musical culture.

These years saw the expansion of the symphony orchestra, from the thirty or forty players of the previous age to almost a hundred or more; the new conservatories and schools for the training of instrumental musicians led composers to demand an incredible amount of technical virtuosity from every instrumentalist in the execution of their scores; composers pursued even more color and emotion in their music by increased use of dissonance and chromaticism while shedding the constraining discipline of the Classical forms. This was an era of music of much richness, opulence, color, and flamboyance, as can be heard in the compositions of German-born Johannes Brahms , the cosmopolitan Russian composer Peter Tchaikovsky , and any of the composers of the blossoming Nationalist schools. Anton Bruckner Born: Ansfelden, September 4, 1824 Died: Vienna, October 11, 1896 Having spent much of his life as an organist and teacher, Bruckner went to Vienna in 1867 to teach organ and music theory at the Conservatory there.

It was then, quite late in his life, that he turned to composition, writing much sacred choral music and nine massive symphonies, leaving the last unfinished at the time of his death. Bruckner's small-town, peasant background, his deep commitment to the Catholic faith, and his worship of the music of Richard Wagner , are all integral components of his musical style. His nine symphonies, for which he remains best known, combine Wagnerian harmony and orchestration (with a decided emphasis on the orchestra brass) with simple, song-like melodies and a deeply-felt, spiritual fervour. His most popular symphonies are probably the Seventh, the unfinished Ninth, and the "Romantic" Symphony no. 4 . Born: Paris, October 9, 1835 Died: Algiers, December 16, 1921 Described by a famous conductor as "the best second-rate composer in history," Saint-Saëns was nevertheless an excellent craftsman and exceptionally skilled in the art of orchestration. An outstanding pianist and organist and a prolific composer, only a handful of his compositions are now generally well-known.

These include a few concertos, several tone-poems (such as the famous Danse macabre), his biblical opera Samson et Dalila (which is more oratorio than opera), the ever-popular suite known as The Carnival of the Animals (which Saint-Saëns wrote for a group of friends and never intended to have published), and the beautiful and majestic "Organ" Symphony no. 3 in C minor. During his lifetime, Saint-Saëns was a respected and influential musician in France, and he taught, performed, wrote books, plays and poetry, and even dabbled in the sciences. Early in his career he was proponent of "new music," doing much to further the careers of Liszt and Wagner. In 1871 he co-founded the Société National de Musique for the encouragement of French composers. Ironically, the extreme musical conservatisim he cultivated in his later years caused him to despise the music being written by such French composers as César Franck (1822-1890), Jules Massenet (1842-1912) and Claude Debussy .

Georges Bizet Born: Paris, October 25, 1838 Died: Bougival, June 3, 1875 The son of professional musicians and having entered the Paris Conservatory at the age of nine, it certainly seemed that Bizet was destined for great things in music. Sadly, it was not to be, for his music and operas received little critical acclaim during his lifetime. He is, nevertheless, the composer of one of the greatest operas in the international repertoire, Carmen. Yet this, too, was not successful at its premiere, and Bizet died only three months afterward. But the opera continued to play, slowly finding an audience. The score's instrumental color, abundance of wonderful melodies, tense drama, and vibrant characters have ensured its continued success in the world's opera houses. As were many French composers of the time, Bizet was fascinated by the sights and sounds of Spain, and the Spanish setting of his masterpiece allowed him to create such wonderful musical numbers as this chorus from Act IV of Carmen, in which the excited crowd cheers the approach of the famous toreador, Escamillo. Johann Strauss, Jr.

Born: Vienna, October 25, 1825 Died: Vienna, June 3, 1899 During the middle and later years of the nineteenth-century, a style of "light" music became popular with the European middle classes. By appealing to a less-refined, less-discriminating taste for melody, harmony and rhythm, many composers found their audiences in the music halls or on the dance floors: the racy can-can and galop enlivened the parodistic opera-bouffes of Jacques Offenbach (1819-1880); the Victorian sentiment, melody, and satirical humor of the operas of Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan (1842-1900); and in Vienna, the dance music of the Strauss family. Known as "the Waltz King" for his hundreds of waltzes, Johann Strauss, Jr. was a violinist and orchestra leader who also wrote a great number of dances other than waltzes, such as polkas, galops, and quadrilles. Many of Strauss' melodies are instantaneously familiar the world over, such as Tales from the Vienna Woods.

Strauss also composed a number of frothy Viennese operettas, the best of which is Die Fledermaus. Music History 102: a Guide to Western Composers and their music Designed, compiled and created by Robert Sherrane Johann Strauss II Biography, Johann Strauss II Music, Johann Strauss II News, Johann Strauss II Photos and more - KeepVid Music Artist NEWS Johann Strauss, Jr. is the first truly well-known composer in those classical genres particular to his hometown, the Viennese waltz and Viennese operetta. The Blue Danube Waltz is not only the most popular of his works in the former category, but is among the most widely played and arranged pieces of its time, known to the most casual listener today from many radio, film and television uses of it. Johann Strauss, Jr. was born in Vienna on October 25, 1825. He showed remarkable skills early in his childhood, despite his father's opposition to any career in music for any of his three sons. Johann, Sr. wanted him to become a banker, but the younger Strauss had his own ideas, taking violin lessons in secret from a player in his father's band.

When Strauss was 17 his father left the family, thus allowing him to begin serious study without encumbrance. His mother, a good amateur violinist who had always encouraged him, remained supportive. Strauss now studied theory with Joseph Drechsler and took violin lessons from Anton Kohlmann. In 1844 young Johann led his first concert and a year later formed his own band, thereby competing with his father's orchestra. He was also writing his own quadrilles, mazurkas, polkas, and waltzes for performance by his ensemble, even conducting works by his father, and receiving praise from the press. He was given the honorary position of Bandmaster of the 2nd Vienna Citizens' Regiment (his father was bandmaster of the 1st regiment) in 1845, and in 1847 began composing for the Vienna Men's Choral Association. His real success began in 1849 after Johann Strauss, Sr. died. Johann, Jr. merged his father's orchestra with his own and took up his father's contracts.

His career moved along smoothly for the next several years, but in 1853 he became seriously ill and turned over conducting duties to his younger brother, Josef, for six months. After his recovery he resumed fully both his conducting and his composing activities, eventually gaining the respect of such composers as Brahms, Wagner, and Verdi for his seemingly unlimited imagination for using melodies. Strauss married singer Henriette "Jetty" Treffz in August 1862, and they settled in Hietzing. Thereafter, she became his business manager and apparently a great inspiration, drawing him toward operetta, just as Viennese theater operators were becoming tired of the works of Offenbach. His first, Indigo und die vierzig Räuber, came in 1871, and his most famous, Die Fledermaus, was staged three years later with great success. Eine Nacht in Venedig (1883) and Der Zigeunerbaron (1885) were his only other international operetta hits. In 1872, he traveled to the United States and led highly successful concerts in Boston and New York.

For all the success that came in the 1870s for Strauss, there was also much grief: his mother and brother Josef died in 1870, and his wife died suddenly of a heart attack in 1878. Her death devastated him, and the suddenly helpless composer unwisely married the much-younger actress Angelika Dittrich, six weeks later. The marriage lasted only four years, though it may have saved the composer from personal disaster in the months following his wife's death. Strauss, a Roman Catholic, left the church and had to give up his Austrian citizenship to marry Adele Deutsch in 1887, owing to the Church's unwillingness to recognize his divorce. His new wife, with whom he had lived for a long period before their marriage, seemed to inspire him much like his first wife. In his last years, Strauss remained quite productive and active. He was working on a ballet, Cinderella, when he developed a respiratory ailment which grew into pneumonia. He died on June 3, 1899.

Johann Strauss II (October 25, 1825 June 3, 1899), also known as Johann Strauss, Jr., the Younger, the Son (German: Sohn), Johann Baptist Strauss, was an Austrian composer of light music, particularly dance music and operettas. He composed over 500 waltzes, polkas, quadrilles, and other types of dance music, as well as several operettas and a ballet. In his lifetime, he was known as "The Waltz King", and was largely then responsible for the popularity of the waltz in Vienna during the 19th century.nStrauss had two younger brothers, Josef and Eduard Strauss, who became composers of light music as well, although they were never as well known as their elder brother. Some of Johann Strauss' most famous works include "The Blue Danube", "Kaiser-Walzer", "Tales from the Vienna Woods", and the "Tritsch-Tratsch-Polka". Among his operettas, Die Fledermaus and Der Zigeunerbaron are the best known.

FREUDEN-GRÜSSE | MuseScore MuseScore Choose where you want to share: Link to this page June 3, 1899 Vienna, Austria Johann Strauss, the Younger, (born Oct. 25, 1825, Vienna, Austria—died June 3, 1899, Vienna), “the Waltz King,” a composer famous for his Viennese waltzes and operettas. Strauss was the eldest son of the composer Johann Strauss the Elder. Because his father wished him to follow a nonmusical profession, he started his career as a bank clerk. He studied the violin without his father’s knowledge, however, and in 1844 conducted his own dance band at a Viennese restaurant. In 1849, when the elder Strauss died, Johann combined his orchestra with his father’s and went on a tour that included Russia (1865–66) and England (1869), winning great popularity. In 1870 he relinquished leadership of his orchestra to his brothers, Josef and Eduard, in order to spend his time writing music.

In 1872 he conducted concerts in New York City and Boston.Strauss’s most famous single composition is An der schönen blauen Donau (1867; The Blue Danube), the main theme of which became one of the best-known tunes in 19th-century music. His many other melodious and successful waltzes include Morgenblätter (1864; Morning Papers), Künstlerleben (1867; Artist’s Life), Geschichten aus dem Wienerwald (1868; Tales from the Vienna Woods), Wein, Weib und Gesang (1869; Wine, Women and Song), Wiener Blut (1871; Vienna Blood), and Kaiserwaltzer (1888). Of his nearly 500 dance pieces, more than 150 were waltzes. Among his stage works, Die Fledermaus (1874; The Bat) became the classical example of Viennese operetta. Equally successful was Der Zigeunerbaron (1885; The Gypsy Baron).

Among his numerous other operettas are Der Karneval in Rom (1873; The Roman Carnival) and Eine Nacht in Venedig (1883; A Night in Venice). Uploaded Strauss II, Johann | San Francisco Classical Voice San Francisco Classical Voice Known as “The Waltz King,” Strauss wrote many of the world’s most famous waltzes (“The Blue Danube,” “The Emperor”), as well as the operetta “Die Fledermaus” (The bat). Vital Statistics Born: October 25, 1825, in Vienna Died: June 3, 1899, in Vienna Nationality: German Genre: Romantic Performed as: Violinist, orchestra leader During the composer's lifetime: The Austro-Hungarian Pact (1867) gives Hungary more autonomy, turning the Austrian Empire into the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Hungarian czardas and the Hungarian, or “gypsy,” musical style become all the rage in Vienna. Musical contemporaries: Verdi, Wagner, Brahms.

Biographical Outline All in the family: His father, Johann Sr., helps popularize the waltz with his Strauss Orchestra, which plays for major balls and civic events in Vienna. His brothers, Josef and Eduard, also go into music. Josef writes some fine dance tunes, as well, and collaborates with Johann on the famous Pizzicato Polka. The two become friendly rivals, at the top of the Viennese dance music scene. Going solo, 1844-53: Johann II forms his own orchestra and quickly becomes wildly successful in upscale dance halls and palaces around Vienna and throughout Europe. At his father’s death in 1849, he merges the two orchestras and takes over his father’s gigs. He gets so busy that he suffers a nervous breakdown in 1853 and has to take a rest cure. Politics and props: Strauss sympathized with the revolutionists in 1848, a year of European upheaval. When the government wins, however, Strauss changes partners and spends the rest of his life commemorating important current events in music. He dedicates much of his music to prominent nobility.

In return, he is awarded a slew of medals from European monarchs, and in 1863 he earns the title of Court Ball Music Director, like his father before him. 1856-1872: Johann conducts his orchestra every summer at the Vauxhall Pavilion in Pavlovsk, Russia, which turns out to be extremely lucrative. He also travels to Paris, London, and as far as Boston and New York. Operetta, 1871: Strauss turns to the stage to launch a homegrown version of French operetta. Die Fledermaus appears in 1874, Ein Nacht in Venedig (A night in Venice) in 1883, and Zigeunerbaron (The Gypsy baron) in 1885. Some of his famous waltzes, such as Roses From the South, are actually arrangements from his 16 operetta scores. Fun Facts Golden statue: Vienna’s centrally located Stadtpark features a prominent golden statue of Strauss playing the violin.

In the movies: Strauss’ music is not often heard in concert halls, yet his melodies are still extremely popular, featured in a wide variety of films from Tom and Jerry cartoons to 2001: A Space Odyssey. Viennese hero: Strauss is still highly popular in his hometown of Vienna, where his music ushers in the New Year at the Musikverein concert hall in an annual international broadcast. The racy waltz: The waltz was a peasant dance from upper Austria, which became fashionable in the late 18th century, though it was still considered racy at that time. It was fast, and even in the mid-19th century was associated with country dances (see the waltzes in Gounod’s Faust and Tchaikovsky’s Evgeny Onegin). Dance-hall waltzes are actually five or six short waltzes combined. The lost Strauss files: Strauss was a talented orchestrator and was complimented on this by many musicians, including his friend Johannes Brahms. However, most of his original orchestrations are lost, and his works have been reorchestrated from piano arrangements.

Taste maker: Strauss was fascinated by the music of Wagner and Verdi, and gave some of the earliest performances of their work in Vienna. Recommended Biography Peter Kemp, The Strauss Family: Portrait of a Musical Dynasty. 2 vols. (Tunbridge Wells, 1985, 1989). Explore the Music Strauss wrote more than 400 works. When you pick out a recording or program of his music, it’s always fun to choose one that has some unfamiliar pieces on it, rather than simply favorites. Recommended Websites Johann Strauss - Biography - IMDb Johann Strauss Jump to: Overview (3) | Mini Bio (1) | Spouse (3) | Trivia (3) Overview (3) The Waltz King Mini Bio (1) Johann Strauss (or Johann Strauss son), one of Austrian music's most famous names who studied music secretly against his father's will, later became the leader of his father's band and the indisputable "waltz king"; his waltz 'On the Beautiful Blue Danube', is the main theme in Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968).

He was born Johann Sebastian Strauss on October 25, 1825, in Vienna, Austria. His father was the composer Johann Strauss Sr. Young Johann Strauss studied music secretly with his father's first violinist in the Strauss orchestra. He was reprimanded by his father who wanted him to be a banker. He continued studies of counterpoint, harmony, and violin, and concentrated fully on a career as a composer at the age of 17, when his father left the family. Young Strauss made his debut at the Dommayer's Casino in Hietzing, the upscale district of Vienna. He became the rival of his father and gained popularity performing with his own orchestra. He took the side of revolutionaries when Vienna was racked up by the bourgeois revolution of 1848. He publicly played La Marseillaise and was hauled up by the Viennese authorities. That caused him denial of position of the Hofballmusikdirektor (Royal Ball Music Director). His career continued after the death of his father in 1849, which allowed the merger of two Strauss orchestras under the baton of Johann Strauss.

Strauss took his united orchestra on extensive tours in Austria, Germany, Poland, Italy, France, and Britain. Russian Tsar Alexander II commissioned Strauss to play at Pavlovsk, the royal suburb of St. Peterburg. There was the opening of a new railway and a landmark concert hall for Russian aristocracy. Strauss also accepted commissions to play for the Grand Prince Michael in St. Petersburg, Russia. In 1853, when the commissions became too much to be handled, his mother persuaded younger brother Joseph to take over the helm of the Strauss Orchestra. Strauss eventually toured and concertized to an exhaustion and was confined to a sanatorium to recuperate as he was suffering from neuralgia. He was married three times and had complications with the Catholic Church which refused to grant him a divorce. Strauss had to change his religion and nationality in order to get married to the woman he loved; he became a citizen of German Duchy of Sachsen-Coburg-Gotha. After that he became free to marry his third wife Adele, who encouraged his creative talent in his later years. Johann Strauss was the most sought after composer of dance music in the second half of the 19th Century.

His influence is felt in the music of the operetta maestro Franz Lehár and other composers. Among his admirers were Richard Wagner , Johannes Brahms, Richard Strauss and other prominent composers. Strauss wrote Die Fledermaus (The Bat), Der Zigeunerbaron (The Gypsy Baron), Wiener Blut (The Viennese Blood), and other popular operettas. His exquisite waltzes: The Blue Danube, Tales from the Vienna Wood, Man only Lives Once, On the Beautiful Blue Danube, and many other waltzes made Johann Strauss the indisputable "waltz king" of the 19th century. He died of pneumonia on June 3, 1899, in Vienna, and was laid to rest in the cemetery of Zentralfriedhof in Vienna, Austria. - IMDb Mini Biography By: Steve Shelokhonov Spouse (3)

Question: Which famed Viennese composer, who died on June 3, 1899, was known as the Waltz King?
Answer: Johann Strauss II